GOLDEN EAGLES UPSET #21 OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN

Siloam Springs, Ark. (January 27, 2007) - Even though they let a twenty point lead slip away late in the second half, the John Brown Golden Eagles were able to hold on and come away with the 79-72 win on Saturday night against #21 Oklahoma Christian. Adam Workman paced JBU with 24 points and four rebounds. Cody Page and Joel Tesis pitched in with 14 and 11 points respectively.

John Brown (12-7, 3-4) took a nine point led into the locker rooms, and opened the second half on fire. At the 14:01 mark freshman James Manthe would take a pass from Page and score on the reverse lay-up to put John Brown ahead by 16, 55-39. John Brown would continue their attack when Workman would nail his fifth three pointer of the game to extend the lead to 64-44 with 7:23 remaining. Oklahoma Christian (10-8, 4-4), however, wouldn’t be done as they would go on a 17-6 run to cut the lead down to nine, 70-61. With under 1:20 left in the game, OC would be forced to foul and send Tyler Dees to the charity stripe where he would convert both sides of his bonus free-throw attempts. OC would go on to nail three consecutive three point field goals from Tanner Hazelbaker, Keith Harris, and Charles Baldwin to put the score at 74-70. Harris and Baldwin would finish with 18 points each.

John Brown would continue to convert free-throws down the stretch to keep the game out of reach and secure the victory.

Both teams shot 44 percent for the game, but the difference came at the charity stripe as JBU had 33 free-throw attempts compared to only 13 by OC. John Brown converted 76 percent (25-33) of their free throw opportunities, while Oklahoma Christian managed to hit 69 percent (9-13).

John Brown also took charge of the boards controlling the rebounding battle 41-29.

Head coach John Sheehy knows how important this game was for his team. “It was almost a must win,” said Sheehy. “With the teams in our conference, it was important to get this win so we could stay in contention in the conference.”

The Golden Eagles will return to action on Monday, Jan. 29 when they travel to Chickasha, Okla. to take on Science and Arts of Oklahoma (3-13, 3-6) at 8 p.m.